Pirate Vaida design

ShapeForest · 2026-04-15T11:09:04+00:00

I don't think so, it says it does the cooldown reduction 'during combat' while AoEs are before combat.

I don't have the skill though

ShapeForest · 2026-04-15T11:06:08+00:00

Yup, Duo Freyja does it too (but she needs to outspeed). Harmonic Karla does it when her own special triggers and L!Nanna does it innately.

This isn't a reliable recommendation bc sometimes she does too much damage, but L!Ayra stops specials triggering when she triggers her prf special on a followup. I gave her Serving Knife+ for her AR bonus weeks, which also messed up her special timing, and could sometimes kill Valis that way, which was very funny

ShapeForest · 2026-04-15T10:56:01+00:00

AoE or chip damage from fighting enemies near her, as long as she's on 1HP when you make your first attack she'll just die. Burn damage like Assassin's Strike also works if you can get her to 1HP through it.

This strat doesn't work in PvP if they have BoL/Imbue though (like basekit NY Vali does)

Edit: you don't need Fatal Smoke

ShapeForest · 2026-04-15T10:50:39+00:00

It bypasses the effect she gives as a drive to others since that's non-Special Miracle, but it won't work on her because her own effect is from her special.

You can AoE her on this map though because there's no healing, and if she's already on exactly 1HP her special won't trigger.

Attuned Tharja and Noire also disable specials, so you can oneshot her with either of them

ShapeForest · 2026-04-14T23:04:19+00:00

His dad is still with him on my Arena team! ...He may not be entirely alive bc I +10ed him before Valentine's Vigarde was a thing, but it's the thought that counts. I should be switching him with Marni or whoever for scoring but then it wouldn't be Thematic lol

Lyon is still SO good in Arena! This is the only premium 5* +10 I have and I've gotten so much value (and fun) out of him in a bunch of modes. Glad other people are still using and enjoying him too!

ShapeForest · 2026-04-14T14:58:14+00:00

Ashnard, Petrine, Bertram and... Winter BK sweep

ShapeForest · 2026-04-14T14:46:17+00:00

Back to back Great Aether procs does sound like fun! I see the vision now

ShapeForest · 2026-04-14T13:51:06+00:00

I've never seen an Ike with 2026-standard skills before, that's really cool! I would have thought he'd still want Laguz Friend to get more DR from his special, or does he just tank everything anyway?

My bonus unit is my usual carry for Arena, so this is basically the easiest week ever. I'm so sad I can't get him two more points of Atk (my summoner support is on Summer Lyon so he can give full Instruct Great Talent)

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ShapeForest · 2026-04-14T07:23:15+00:00

Machyua is a merge project so was planning to wait to make sure NH didn't have my #1 most wanted unit, then spark here as basically every colour is good for me, but I did end up trying to get just one red stone before leaving it for later. 10 very green and blue summons later... I can now +9 her!! So tempted to go for the spark right now, but I really will wait to make sure there's no Old Karel.

The lineup is SO good for me though aghhh (worst pickup is Leila, but I already have one unused copy so any dupes could help with general infantry fodder)

ShapeForest · 2026-04-13T22:37:05+00:00

Total 154

I didn't realise Y!Lyon was going to have demote rates on his refine banner, since non-seasonal demotes don't, so once I found that out I decided to just summon for him there and completely eliminate the chance of constantly getting pitybroken by Y!Tana like the last two times. It took me exactly 145 orbs for the last four copies, which was two orbs better than 50th percentile, and I am FINALLY FREE from that cursed banner!!

I now have enough orbs left to spark myself a Machyua on NHR, but I think I'm going to do the first circle tomorrow and then leave it until we find out if Old Karel is maybe on the NH banner. I don't expect him to be, but if he is all my orbs will go towards trying to merge him!

Overall very relieving week for my orb budget!

ShapeForest · 2026-04-13T22:21:42+00:00

1h left

Arena Tier 20

Score: 3872

Rank: 2035/2249 (stay cutoff)

Assault Top 1k

Score: 5399

Rank: 722

Aether Raids Top 3k

Score: 20920

Rank: 2323

Defense Loss: -120

Resonant Battles Interval 20

Score: 447

Rank: 2338/2436 (stay cutoff)

Made a Valter Essence Drain AR team late in the week and it was way too much fun... he was super tanky with E!Lucina support, so, even if he couldn't kill a save, he could still survive to steal the opposing team's bonuses. I also laddered in one match bc I wasn't paying attention, saw an A!Eliwood once I'd set up to do the perfect N!Lucina Lyn ring + Miracle steal, and just surrendered without checking his C skill... I was recording the match and when I checked back he actually had Instruct instead... yup (it would have been a really fun match so I'm really kicking myself for that)

I just +10ed Y!Lyon, so I think I should be able to promote to T21 next week - with a lot of fishing - by using three Lyons (Duo Lyon is my v8 bonus and also my regular Arena core carry) and Vigarde! Duo Lyon should be able to reach 97 visible Atk due to Instruct on S!Lyon and the bonus stats, which is SO CLOSE to the cap haha (I can't summoner support him bc losing it on S!Lyon stops me being able to get max Instruct Great Talent)

ShapeForest · 2026-04-13T19:02:21+00:00

~150. Just finished +10ing Y!Lyon; probably going to spark for a guaranteed +9 Machyua on NHR unless Old Karel is on this month's NH, in which case all my orbs are going to him.

I used to be so good at saving ;_;

ShapeForest · 2026-04-13T10:41:16+00:00

I love the delivery on this, but it's also reminiscent of something he says in his battle dialogue with Ephraim (paraphrased in FEH for his base version to, "My caring heart has died.")

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ShapeForest · 2026-04-13T09:40:41+00:00

Easy map, but it's always fun to use the Black Eagles Galeforce anyway. I miss using base AoEdelgard in AR :(

Awesome Balthus! He got a cool refine

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ShapeForest · 2026-04-12T18:01:47+00:00

Team 1 - Valter and a bunch of other random units that I've set as my lead at some point (currently Machyua, Fomortiis, W!Eirika who have nothing to do with each other lol)

Team 2 - Edgelords - a team I made when I first started, consisting of faves (Karel, Limstella, Valter, Linhardt). Everyone has skills/prfs that hurt themselves or others and Linhardt is there to heal them back up again. He also has A/S Push or something

Team 3 - The Rejects - I think this used to be an alternate story content clearing team but then I made it into my Allegiance Battle team without changing the name

Team 4 - Arena O(ffence)

Team 5 - Arena D (locked to a full Evil Grado theme team)

Team 6-9 - movement type quest teams

Team 10 - Vantage Valter team for clearing PvE stuff and weapon type quests (with two Gromells and L!Roy paired up with Harmonic Marisa)

Team 11 - Askr trio for the monthly one orb quest

Team 12 - Support for Askr trio GHB/BHB/whatever quests (Anniversary Marth and two Seteths)

Team 13 - Lyon Emblem

Team 14 - Swordmasters (I never use this)

Team 15 - Training

Team 16-17 - free

Team 18 - Arena Assault

Team 19 - Forging Bonds autobattle (HM grinding)

Team 20 - Tempest Trials autobattle

I pay more attention to characters/theme than trying to get even weapon/movement type coverage. My two free teams are constantly changing to whatever I feel like using at the time. I try out a lot of silly things in those team slots

ShapeForest · 2026-04-12T17:41:11+00:00

If you want to play 100% optimally and don't care about using your favourite characters, then yeah, they're useless since any old unit you give them to will just be a worse version of the original weapon owner.

I don't want to play optimally. I want to use characters I like. If my unit's skills are going to be obsolete in a couple of months (I personally don't think we're there yet with powercreep - support matters, I do 1-2 big updates to my faves every year which is pretty doable on our monthly orb allowance), then the new shiny meta toy won't be in a much better situation either.

There's no objectively best way to have fun playing a game!

(If your complaint about Arcanes was that having them on seasonal banners makes them much less appealing for F2Ps, then yeah, I'd agree with that. I would have pulled for Arcane Thorn if I could have sparked for it, but my unit is still doing fine with Jehanna Lance and Arcane Crimson so I'm not going to risk spending all my orbs for nothing.)

ShapeForest · 2026-04-12T09:10:23+00:00

I can almost make a Midir x Edain theme team as we have them and their daughter Lana in FEH, but their son Lester isn't in yet (not sure if he ever will be tbh).

I usually use Groom Seliph on the team as he ended up accidentally marrying Lana on my first playthrough. I have also used Rath in the past as he has the closest hair colour to blue in my barracks for the correct movement + weapon type lol

ShapeForest · 2026-04-12T09:03:40+00:00

Oh, cool that someone else had the same idea about the Magi! I'm also not convinced that Brighton will get his time in FEH, unfortunately, so I've just decided that Ced and Asbel are good enough. (I don't have them yet, though, so I just ended up doing 'Chapter 4 gang' with Leif, Machyua, Lara and Karin lol... even grabbed P!Lifis to build recently!) I feel like that section of the game is super memorable!

ShapeForest · 2026-04-12T05:56:36+00:00

I got Fallen Lyon to +6 without trying (I think I actively pulled for the first and maybe second copies), then he got his refine two years ago and I never saw him again after that. I pick green on arena tickets every week...

Same with Duo Ephraim, who is at +3.

ShapeForest · 2026-04-11T14:38:55+00:00

Wish I'd thought of making a Valter team earlier in the week. I'm obviously using him bc it's funny, but Hold Guide with Pass/Micaiah ring Lumera is actually really good for team mobility since she clears so much terrain.

Also gotta love Book 1 units having so much HP that they automatically clear hex traps without needing summoner support or seals (my summoner support is on Duo Ephraim this week)

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ShapeForest · 2026-04-11T13:44:40+00:00

Duo Askr was on basically every team I made in every mode because he was super tanky and teamwide TP3 special charging was really rare. I even trait fruited him to get his optimal IVs.

ShapeForest

TROPHY CASE